Category: Reptiles

Spotted Salamanders

7/15/1996

To get from their winter homes to the breeding ponds and back, spotted salamanders must twice cross Homewood's Lakeshore Drive. Many don't make it.
(Photograph by L. J Davenport)

There's a hillside in Homewood, Alabama, famous for its amphibians. With the first warm, rainy night of spring, salamanders, frogs, and toads rouse themselves from their winter stupors to wriggle, squirm, and hop downhill. Humans, fascinated by this timeless, primeval event, gather below to watch.

The Eastern Glass Lizard

4/15/1996

A dark-colored, white spotted snake-like lizard is held by someone's hand. The lizard does not have legs or feet, which is why it appears like a snake.

Although it looks like a snake, the eastern glass lizard moves with less grace and may jettison its tail to escape pursuing predators. (Photograph by L.J. Davenport)

Many people recoil (pun intended) at the mere mention of a snake, while the actual sighting of such a monster sends them scurrying for cover. Occasionally, though, the object of this terror is a perfectly innocent reptile, the eastern glass lizard.

Green Treefrogs

5/2/1994

On a brown tree branch sits a lime green frog. The frog has one black eye that is showing.

A green treefrog sleeps peacefully on a sumac branch. (Photograph by Larry Davenport)

As spring hurries toward summer and evening temperatures rise, so does the decibel level at Alabama ponds and puddles. Every night, in a ceremony that pre-dates the dinosaurs, male frogs and toads congregate at the water's edge to grunt, moan, whistle, or trill their way (they hope) into a female's heart. Often, a key voice in this primal chorus is the "quonk" of the green treefrog.

About the author

Larry Davenport holds a Ph.D. in biology from the University of Alabama. He is a professor of Biological and Environmental Sciences at Samford University in Birmingham, where he teaches courses on general botany, plant taxonomy, and wetlands. In 2007, he was named Alabama Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Dr. Davenport has contributed his Nature Journal column to Alabama Heritage since 1993. This column inspired his award-winning book Nature Journal (University of Alabama Press, 2010).

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